


Lucis et Noctis

by chicago_ruth



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 18:20:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9337355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicago_ruth/pseuds/chicago_ruth
Summary: For ten years, Noctis dreams of the past.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [neverminetohold](https://archiveofourown.org/users/neverminetohold/gifts).



Noctis dreams.

The crystal shows him the paths he didn’t take, the friends he didn’t make, the people who were never born.

He grieves for Crow, who might have lived had his father not insisted on sending somebody to help Lunafreya.

He grieves for Nyx, who suffered the same curse all who wore the ring did.

He grieves for Ravus, who lost himself long ago and only found light again just as his life was over.

And he grieves for Ardyn, who wants nothing more than to be part of the light again, but will forever be shadowed and dark.

Bahamut shows Noctis the beginning: Ardyn, young and untainted,  so pure that he steals Noctis’s breath away. He is as beautiful as Lunafreya and as determined to help as she is. As she was.

“The curse will bother you no more,” Ardyn says to the old man he cured. It is a truth, but Noctis can see the lie of it as well. He can see the curse leave a speck of darkness inside Ardyn’s heart.

Noctis dreams, and he sees that speck grow as a pearl does inside a clam. The grain hardens and expands until it is a solid core.

That is when the first unflattering words slither through Ardyn’s thoughts. Are these people worth it? Do they deserve to be saved?

 _Of course they do!_ Noctis thinks, and he reaches out to embrace young, not-yet lost Ardyn.

Ardyn can’t see him, can’t hear him. Noctis is a wraith of the future, gliding through the past yet taking no part in it.

But, mayhap, Ardyn senses him regardless. Ardyn pushes through his dark thoughts and continues to do his duty.

Noctis dreams of Ardyn, and he thinks he could love this man. In another life, in another era.

Bahamut shows him the beginning: a young king, jealous of the adoration Ardyn receives, begins to spout hate.

“Who is this man, who has absorbed countless evils? No soul can go unscathed under such assault! Surely he must be a daemon himself!”

 _Stop!_ Noctis cries out, but his words are an illusion of the future, echoing through time and touching no ears.

The young king succeeds in his campaign, heedless of both Ardyn and Noctis’s protests, and the people turn against Ardyn.

Noctis would love Ardyn, in another life, in another era. Noctis tries to wrap the light of the crystal around Ardyn and cries when he is rebuffed by the kernel of darkness in Ardyn’s soul.

Blind with grief and rage, Ardyn takes up arms to slay this man who betrayed him. Noctis grasps at his arms and tries to stay his sword, but it is no use. Noctis tries to beseech the young king instead and finds him equally unwavering.

Bahamut shows him the beginning: the young king Izunia, thrusting his sword through Ardyn’s heart. He pierces through the remaining light, and that is all it takes for the darkness in Ardyn to fully take hold. It seeps through Ardyn’s body, no longer held at bay.

In Ardyn’s last breath, he begs the Astrals for help. He begs them to grant him reprieve. He begs them to see his soul to heaven.

Yet they refuse.

Leviathan, Titan, Ramuh, Shiva, Bahamut – one by one they each refuse him, citing the curse upon his soul. The curse they asked him to bear.

Only Ifrit answers Ardyn’s requests. “You will roam the world eternal, until such a time when it comes to an end.”

Noctis dreams of tears, his own and Ardyn’s, falling eternally. Ardyn’s tears bring darkness upon the world; Noctis’s tears will cleanse it.

Bahamut shows him the ending: Ardyn’s final breath, a smile upon his lips, and Noctis’s own life destroying the seed of darkness.


End file.
